Method for editing and enhancing readability of authored documents
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method of improving the human readability of a sentence, the method comprising:
- scanning the sentence for each of a plurality of signs, each sign signifying a possible occurrence of unnecessary text in the sentence or text that can be improved, said sentence being grammatically correct;
detecting, as a result of said scanning, an occurrence in the sentence of a first sign of said plurality of signs; and
in response to detecting the occurrence of the first sign, applying sign-dependent logic to the sentence to assess whether the sentence includes unnecessary text that can be removed, or text that can be improved, to enhance the human readability of the sentence, said sign-dependent logic including a check for typically unnecessary phrases containing the first sign, wherein different sign-dependent logic is used for different ones of said signs;
wherein the method is performed by computer.
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Abstract
Various methods are disclosed for improving the readability of authored documents. The methods generally involve scanning a sentence to check for specific signs of potential writing problems, and applying associated sign-dependent decision logic to assess whether particular writing problems exist. The methods may be implemented in a computer program that makes editing suggestions to a user and/or makes edits automatically. The program may, in some cases, dim unnecessary language to reveal how the sentence will read with such language removed.
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Citations
47 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method of improving the human readability of a sentence, the method comprising:
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scanning the sentence for each of a plurality of signs, each sign signifying a possible occurrence of unnecessary text in the sentence or text that can be improved, said sentence being grammatically correct; detecting, as a result of said scanning, an occurrence in the sentence of a first sign of said plurality of signs; and in response to detecting the occurrence of the first sign, applying sign-dependent logic to the sentence to assess whether the sentence includes unnecessary text that can be removed, or text that can be improved, to enhance the human readability of the sentence, said sign-dependent logic including a check for typically unnecessary phrases containing the first sign, wherein different sign-dependent logic is used for different ones of said signs; wherein the method is performed by computer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A computer-implemented method of assessing the readability of a sentence, comprising:
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scanning the sentence for each of a plurality of “
to be”
verbs;detecting, as a result of said scanning, an occurrence of a “
to be”
verb in the sentence; andassessing whether the occurrence of the “
to be”
verb signifies the presence of passive voice;wherein assessing whether the occurrence of the “
to be”
verb signifies the presence of passive voice comprises checking each of two words immediately following the occurrence of the “
to be”
verb to determine whether either of said two words is a strong verb;and wherein the method is performed by computer. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A computer-implemented method of assessing the readability of a sentence, comprising, via execution of a computer program:
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scanning the sentence for one of a plurality of prepositions, said sentence being grammatically correct; detecting, as a result of said scanning, an occurrence of a preposition; determining whether the occurrence of the preposition immediately follows a verb; if the occurrence of the preposition does not immediately follow a verb, interacting with a user of the computer program to determine whether the occurrence of the preposition is part of a prepositional phrase that can be removed from the sentence to improve human readability. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37)
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38. A computerized method of assessing the readability of a sentence, comprising:
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scanning the sentence to identify a sequence of four or more words that are separated by two commas; altering an appearance of the sequence of four or more words in a computerized display of the sentence; and determining whether the sequence of four or more words should be removed from the sentence to improve the sentence'"'"'s readability. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A computerized method of assessing the readability of a sentence, comprising:
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scanning the sentence to detect an occurrence of the word “
any”
;determining whether the occurrence of the word “
any”
immediately follows a negated verb;in response to detecting that the occurrence of “
any”
follows a negated verb, revising the sentence by making the negated verb positive, negating an object of the verb, and deleting the occurrence of “
any”
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44. A computerized method of improving the human readability of a sentence, the method comprising:
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detecting an occurrence of a potentially unnecessary word or phrase in a sentence; and dimming the occurrence of the potentially unnecessary word or phrase in a computerized display of the sentence to reveal to a user how the sentence reads without the potentially unnecessary word or phrase. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47)
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Specification